TekLog Links

Simple Parking Application for the iPhone and iPod Touch G-Park in 3 easy steps: 1. Park your car and hit the Park Me! button. 2. Get lost. 3. Hit the Where Did I Park? button. Brings up Google Maps and creates turn-by-turn directions that will take you right back to your car! G-Park also provides an easy-to-use interface for additional details. *Most accurate with iPhone 3G or iPhone (pre-3G) and iPod Touch with G-Fi Mobile GPS Network Router.

*********UPDATE SUBMITTED TO APPLE*********** An updated version of G-Park has been submitted and should be available at any moment. G-Park 1.1 update enhances accuracy and overall application performance. Pre-Order G-Fi at www.posimotion.com

Updated:
Improved support for all devices. Enhanced accuracy.

“As Hitachi GST embarks upon its latest educational campaign and debuts a new market vision which it encapsulates as “The Dawn of the Tera Era,”. Two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine… a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Pumped out of the bloated stomach of Hitachi’s PR department after the release of this video, in which a vaguely anthropomorphic albino castrati is schooled on the 1TB “Tera Era” after being sucked into a hallucinogenic electric kool aid acid dimension, filled with singing electric guitars and leering cycloptic suns.

IntoMobile has a few good tips on how to extend your iPhone’s battery life, and most of them involve the most obvious thing you can do to keep your iPhone running: cut down on any and all extra functions. They actually recommend to turn off 3G, but you don’t have to go that far — just by holding down the Home button, you can close any background applications sucking up juice. And by resetting your phone, you can do the same thing — clear out anything running that you’re not using.

Actually, the great Leo Laporte mention a great tip on his radio show: turn off the “Ask to join networks” feature in the WiFi settings. If you’re like me, you almost always know when there’s a WiFi network around that you can use on your iPhone, and so it’s pointless (and a waste of battery life) for the iPhone to be constantly searching for one. You can always flip it back on if you do want to do a little poking around, but leaving it off will significantly help battery life.

In fact, when in extreme trouble, you can go even farther and just switch the whole thing into Airplane Mode. It’ll make your phone useless, but when you really need it — out on a trip, or waiting to make an important call — the extra battery time might make all the difference.

As a prelude to Comic-Con, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg took the opportunity this morning at the Glendale campus to discuss the studio’s commitment to 3-D and preview a scene from its debut stereoscopic CG-animated feature, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS (March 27, 2009).

Katzenberg stated that DreamWorks has worked hard in attaining the three Holy Grails of 3-D: dark environments; moving quickly; and quick cutting.

After viewing 3-D test footage of KUNG FU PANDA (the prison escape sequence), journalists met with directors Rob Letterman and Conrad Vernon and some of the stereoscopic team: “This is more about enhancing storytelling and emotionality,” proclaimed Vernon.

(Source: dailyherald.com)              Brian Krause used to get chills when he heard information about a new “Star Wars” film coming out.

This year, he has the luke-warms.

Krause was among the fans who attended a Lucasfilm presentation at the recent Wizard World comic convention in Rosemont. Steve Sansweet, Lucasfilm’s director of fan relations, unveiled details about new “Star Wars” products coming out in the next few months, including “Star Wars: Clone Wars,” a full-length computer-animated film that arrives in theaters on Aug. 15.

Krause, a self-described “Star Wars” geek from Elgin, expected to be blown away by what he saw. Instead, he merely liked it.

As part of the newly expanded format of the Computer Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH 2008 will feature three all-star Production Studio Nights hosted by industry powerhouses Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Lucasfilm.

In addition to the Festival’s popular Competition and Invited Screenings, Festival Talks, and Production Sessions, each studio will host evening events at Los Angeles’ famed Nokia Theatre. Highlights will include an exclusive advance screening of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, preceded by a conversation between Animation Director John Knoll and Director David Filoni, discussions with some of the industry’s most notable pioneers such as John Lasseter and Frederic Back, as well as a tribute to the late Stan Winston, renown visual effects supervisor, makeup artist and film director.

(Source: goldderby.latimes.com) Besides Heath Ledger’s, what other Oscars could ‘The Dark Knight’ win?

With all of the frenzied Oscar talk about Heath Ledger being nominated for best lead or supporting actor, where is the buzz for “The Dark Knight” in other categories, eh?

Of course, Warner Bros. would like us all to believe that “The Dark Knight” is a shoo-in for best-picture and director noms, but those may be a bit of a s-t-r-e-t-c-h, even for mighty Batman. However, director/co-writer Christopher Nolan might be nominated along with his brother Jonathan for crafting such words as these growled by the Joker (Heath Ledger) to Batman (Christian Bale): “You’re just a freak . . . like me!”

ComingSoon.net caught up with DreamWorks Animations CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg on Tuesday and learned that George Lucas is looking to repurpose the six “Star Wars” episodes into 3D format.

Katzenberg told us that Lucas is very excited about it and that he’s got the technical resources to pull it off. “He isn’t going to put a product out, I think, that isn’t anything other than first rate,” Katzenberg said.

For what he’s done to Star Wars, George Lucas met a poetic fate at last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration in Japan. The original Star Wars films were preserved like this for decades, until George Lucas unzipped his fly and thawed them out in 1997 to muck around with. Twenty years from now, if we all cross streams, we can probably return the favor.

How successfully can Guitar Hero be emulated with a cheap plastic plug-and-play guitar and no video game console? Very successfully, if the methodical abortion of fetuses from up to 100 yards away is a criterion for excellence. Otherwise? Not so much, although that does sound exactly like Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” doesn’t it?

Make sure to watch until the player activates Star Power. To think of all the kids who ask for Guitar Hero for Christmas only to have their oblivious parents piss right in their mouths when they instead unwrap Shredmaster Jr. on Christmas morning. Curiously, though, I’d still rather play this than Guitar Hero: On Tour.